Lion’s Club State Convention in El Paso will feature newest member: The Mission Valley Lion’s Club

By Joe Olvera ©, 2010

Thea Chambers, president of the Horizon-Eastlake Lions’s Club in El Paso’s Mission Valley is happily assisting residents of San Elizario, Texas as they form their very own, first-ever, Mission Valley Lion’s Club. “We only started recruiting last October, and we’ve already got 22 members,” Chambers said. “San Elizario is a small community, with a lot of history behind it. I felt it was about time for people there to join our band of brothers and sisters. I’m teaching them to form a club.”
The newly chartered Mission Valley Lion’s Club – chartered April 30, 2010 – in San Elizario is only the latest to join the thousands of other members who make the Lion’s Club International one of the most progressive and helpful organizations in the world. The new Lion’s Club will now be able to attend and assist in the State Convention that’s taking place in El Paso from May 13, 2010 to May 15, 2010.
Don Peppard, MD-2 Council chairperson, and chairman of the 16 Lion’s Clubs Districts in Texas, said it’s El Paso’s turn to host the state-wide convention, an honor that only comes around every 16 years. “Our last convention in El Paso happened 16 years ago. This year, we’re having it here again and, in 16 years, we’ll come back to El Paso. We’ll be at the Wyndham Hotel, 2927 Airway Blvd., where more than 300 people have already registered. “We expect more, however,” Peppard said. “From California to San Angelo, Lions are preparing to travel to El Paso.”
The convention will feature meetings early Thursday morning, followed by seminars and other activities for the three days the convention will take place. “We’re always looking for new recruits. This new club in San Elizario gives us what we need, the impetus to bring more people into our fold, so that we an continue helping out our communities.”
Chambers, who’s been a Lion four years, said she loves what she’s doing. “My daddy was a Lion, and he taught me that we all have a responsibility to help our fellow beings. The Lion Alliance forms the strength of our group. We’re looking for movers and shakers in a community, because they are the ones who make things happen.”
Some of those things that Lions make happen include providing eye glasses for people who can’t afford them. “We have our Warriors for Vision and our Knights for Sight, patterned after what Helen Keller wanted Americans to do for the blind and for those who can’t see very well.
“We’re just helping a community to improve the lives of the people who live there,” Chambers said. “Besides working to provide people with eyeglasses, we also run a food bank, we provide food baskets for the needy. We’re working to obtain a semi-truck that will help deliver food for 400 to 500 people in the Mission Valley. Whatever we do, whatever our efforts are, we’re doing it for the good of the community.”